A British tourist is recovering after he was attacked and maimed by a shark on Friday while vacationing in the Caribbean, Sky News reported.
According to witnesses and local officials, a 10-foot bull shark went after 64-year-old Peter Smith while he swam just about 30 feet from shore off the island of Tobago.
Smith was in Courland Bay near the Starfish Resort in Trinidad and Tobago just after 9 a.m. when he was targeted by the shark.
A fellow Briton who was vacationing on the island explained to Sky News what she said she witnessed.
“I saw a dorsal fin come out of the sea and I went … ‘It’s a shark.’ And as it turned I saw the tail come out as well,” Stephanie Wright said.
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The shark attack left Smith with a missing left hand, severing his arm below the elbow.
He also lost part of his left leg and suffered a severe stomach wound, the U.K.’s Mirror reported.
Smith was taken to a hospital in “stable” condition immediately after the attack.
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Orion Jakerov, a local who works on the beach, said the attack occurred in waist-deep water. He said other tourists fought off the shark during Smith’s attack.
“The other people in the water were physically trying to fight the shark off while it attacked,” Jakerov said.
Farley Chavez Augustine, the chief secretary of Tobago, said at a news conference that emergency officials in his country quickly rendered medical aid to Smith and were still looking after him.
“Some reattachments were done, of fingers for example, and hopefully that will save those fingers,” Augustine said, according to Sky News.
He added it appeared Smith’s severed limbs could be saved but no update to the man’s status had been offered as of Monday morning.
“We know that there’s significant wounds on one of his legs that cannot be completely closed, but he will require extensive work,” Augustine added. “The task at this time for our health professionals is really to stabilize and ensure that we can save life and limb as much as possible.”
Peter Smith, 64, of Berkhamsted in England, had some of his fingers reattached after he was attacked by a shark while taking his last vacation swim before returning to England on Friday. https://t.co/MuS8BHsE9V @OCS_THA @FarleyAugustine @SharkAttack_12
— AZP News (@AZP_News) April 27, 2024
Government officials in Tobago had offered a $10,000 bounty for the shark but later rescinded the offer.
Tobago’s government still hopes to find the animal and euthanize it.
The beach was temporarily closed Friday by local officials.
Smith, who was vacationing in the country with his family, had been scheduled to fly back home to the United Kingdom on the day of his attack.
According to the Mirror, 69 unprovoked shark attacks were reported globally in 2023, and 14 of them were fatal.
